Lovell said dividers are now the standard when new benches are installed across the city park system, and argued they encourage people to share space. “Benches,” she said, “are for seating. ”But it’s more complicated than that, according to Setha Low, a professor of environmental psychology at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York who studies exclusion and inequality in public spaces. “Socially just spaces do not have benches that prevent people from lying down,” Low said. “That would not be a socially inclusive feature and would, in fact, advertise that this park was not for everyone — and, therefore, one should ask some serious questions about why this is happening.”